Tuesday, April 20, 2010

failure is the outcome of not having tried the known solution hard enough

In the Soviet military plans, elaborate and detailed, arrived from Staff at HQ. Junior officers in the field were judged by their effort expended in executing the plan. Contrast this with the American military in which goals are determined and their achievement is left to the ingenuity of the local unit. In WW-II Naval Aviation had the motto "When in danger or in doubt, turn in circles scream and shout." That was because the immediate problem, being lost, was not foreseeable and any improvised activity to solve it was justified, or in the case of breaking radio silence defensible. The Soviet equivalent would have been "When in danger or in doubt keep flying until out of gas." Junior officers in trouble could expect messages from HQ demanding more "activity." Sometimes more effort expended on a plan overtaken by events is just what you don't need.

Michael Ledeen popularized the phrase "Faster please" that Glenn Reynolds and others use to showcase real change. Real change is not dragging the world into a Disney portrayal of a sovkhoz circa 1930.

To the true believer a doubter can be challenged the way Adolphe Menjou's General Broulard challenged Kirk Douglas' Colonel Dax in Kubrick's Paths of Glory. Just a little more dash and elan and you could have taken the Anthill.

Michael Ledeen popularized the phrase "Faster please" that Glenn Reynolds and others use to showcase real change. Real change is not dragging the world into a Disney portrayal of a sovkhoz circa 1930.